Posted 11:45 pm Monday, March 18, 2013
Send to Kindle
VIDEO: Day campers learn about insects, plants
With fingers held over head to simulate antennae, the children danced around in a circle doing the “bee dance,” while Honey Queen Hayden Wolf sang a song about the insect.
“Do you like to buzz?/Are you covered all in fuzz?/Do you call a hive a home?/In the garden where you roam/Do you like to eat honey?/Are your stripes a little funny?/Do you like to buzz?”
The dance provided a way to teach the children about how bees “dance” to communicate in the hive. The presentation was just one of several activities during the Discovery Science Place Spring Break Day Camp in Tyler.
Throughout the past week, students from kindergarten through fifth grade learned about gardening, plants, pollination and insects. The theme of the camp coincided with a new exhibit about butterflies.
On Tuesday, the children heard from Miss Wolf and Violet Bourns of the East Texas Beekeepers Association.
Miss Wolf, 17, a home-schooled junior from Big Sandy, is the East Texas Beekeepers Association's 2013 Honey Queen.
Ms. Bourns is the Honey Queen chairwoman who oversees publicity for the queen and the association.
Miss Wolf tends to three hives with her father and brother. She talked to the students about the tools she uses to check her hives, the suit she wears to protect herself and the smoker she uses to calm the bees when she is going to open the hive.
“Do you like to buzz?/Are you covered all in fuzz?/Do you call a hive a home?/In the garden where you roam/Do you like to eat honey?/Are your stripes a little funny?/Do you like to buzz?”
The dance provided a way to teach the children about how bees “dance” to communicate in the hive. The presentation was just one of several activities during the Discovery Science Place Spring Break Day Camp in Tyler.
Throughout the past week, students from kindergarten through fifth grade learned about gardening, plants, pollination and insects. The theme of the camp coincided with a new exhibit about butterflies.
On Tuesday, the children heard from Miss Wolf and Violet Bourns of the East Texas Beekeepers Association.
Miss Wolf, 17, a home-schooled junior from Big Sandy, is the East Texas Beekeepers Association's 2013 Honey Queen.
Ms. Bourns is the Honey Queen chairwoman who oversees publicity for the queen and the association.
Miss Wolf tends to three hives with her father and brother. She talked to the students about the tools she uses to check her hives, the suit she wears to protect herself and the smoker she uses to calm the bees when she is going to open the hive.
She shared with students about the different types of bees — the queen, worker and drone — and their roles in the hive.
Pollination is the most important thing that honey bees do for humans, she said. About one in three mouthfuls of food benefits directly or indirectly from honey bee pollination, according to information on a U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
The children said they enjoyed learning about the bees.
“I think it was fun to do the bee dance and to learn the stuff about bees because we didn't know most of that stuff,” fourth-grader Emily Cameron, 10, a Rice Elementary School student, said.
Fourth-grader Ford Wooldridge, 9, a Good Shepherd School student, said he found the beekeeper's presentation interesting.
He especially enjoyed learning about how the different types of bees developed based on what they ate. And he said attending the camp was better than the alternative.
“I just like how it keeps you from getting real bored (because) if I don't come here, all I get to do is stay at my mom's office,” Ford said.
Museum educator Anita Treviņo-Leon said the camp provided an opportunity for students to interact with each other and learn “fun science facts” about plants and springtime.
Pollination is the most important thing that honey bees do for humans, she said. About one in three mouthfuls of food benefits directly or indirectly from honey bee pollination, according to information on a U.S. Department of Agriculture website.
The children said they enjoyed learning about the bees.
“I think it was fun to do the bee dance and to learn the stuff about bees because we didn't know most of that stuff,” fourth-grader Emily Cameron, 10, a Rice Elementary School student, said.
Fourth-grader Ford Wooldridge, 9, a Good Shepherd School student, said he found the beekeeper's presentation interesting.
He especially enjoyed learning about how the different types of bees developed based on what they ate. And he said attending the camp was better than the alternative.
“I just like how it keeps you from getting real bored (because) if I don't come here, all I get to do is stay at my mom's office,” Ford said.
Museum educator Anita Treviņo-Leon said the camp provided an opportunity for students to interact with each other and learn “fun science facts” about plants and springtime.
